Art in the Ozarks

Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton's Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opens November 11 in the company's hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. It's a one-stop shop for the best of American art—with a collection comparable to that of the Whitney Museum in New York

Colonialism

American art history as we know it starts with the curiosity of a few intrepid—and intrusive—Europeans. "Wooldridge was a British colonial artist," says Assistant Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man of this warm-hued depiction of American Indians gathered around a campfire. "European artists were coming here and documenting what, in their eyes, was exotic."

Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Neoclassicism

Powers was Vermont-born and Ohio-raised, but his rendering of the Roman goddess of spring looks more Italian than American—which is typical of art of that period: American artists and thinkers of the 1840s were embracing neoclassical principles. "There was this link back to Greece, Rome, and the democratic ideal," says Curatorial Director David Houston.

Robert LaPrelle

Impressionism

"Sargent's best works, to me, are those he painted for himself and his friends—not his paid commissions," says Curator of American Art Kevin Murphy. The famed portraitist painted this one in France just as Seurat, Monet, and Degas were making waves. "At the time, lots of American artists were traveling and studying abroad"—and absorbing French Impressionist influences.

Robert LaPrelle

Cubism

"While other artists of the time were trying to present themselves as having no influences, Gorky brought his forward and waved them proudly," says Curatorial Director David Houston. "You see European modernism mutating into something else—the not-so-fractured Cubism and the flowing quality of line make it a bit more New York and American."

Steven Watson

Postwar

Exemplars of Abstract Expressionism are pricey and rare—think Pollock, De Kooning, Rothko—so the museum invested in important transitional works instead. This one signifies the move from Abstract Expressionism to pop. Abstract Expressionists tended to look inward and focus paintings on pure emotions, but Rauschenberg "took all these messy parts of living in New York and put them into his paintings and collages," says Curator of American Art Kevin Murphy.

Robert LaPrelle

Pop

"Choosing [to acquire] Warhol's Dolly Parton as opposed to, say, his Liz Taylor was a conscious thing. We're a new museum in a region without anything like it nearby," says Curatorial Director David Houston. "An '80s Southern icon by an iconic portrait painter was too good to resist. Dolly is smart and clever and knows exactly what she's doing. It's very much what he did as an artist."

Timothy Hursley

Land Art

Near one of the walking paths that slink through the museum's stunning grounds, this stone structure typifies Land Art—i.e., art of and about the land itself (think Robert Smithson's famed Spiral Jetty)—which originated in the 1960s. Turrell is one of the movement's most enduring and active practitioners. This work has a circular opening to the sky, says Curatorial Director David Houston, and pulsating, color-changing lights that turn on when the sun rises and sets.